Kanye West Says J Dilla Was the ‘Margiela of Hip-Hop’ [Watch]

Before Kanye West's fashion line, before his sneakers, and even before Kim Kardashian, Kanye sat down in 2013 and opened up about meeting producer J Dilla.

The candid interview was originally filmed for the Stones Throw documentary Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton, and was recently unearthed by HypeBeast. In the interview, Kanye spoke about meeting Dilla at Common's house in L.A.

"I just remember vibing with him and having so much respect for him. And just wanting to work with him more," he said. “It’s like he was making Quincy Jones production sessions just inside of his MPC. Most producers that can make music that knocks, which is like 90% of producers can make things that knock, especially with Fruity Loops and all that, the sound is usually colder. And then my sound is gonna be very colorful and warm, but sometimes I’d challenged on my mixes that everything didn’t knock as hard as I wanted to. But Dilla, every time, that kick just sat so perfectly."

Kanye went on to describe how producers are similar to fashion designers.

"The hip-hop producers are very similar to the fashion designers and that's one of the reasons I'm so interested in fashion," he said. "They'll take a military jacket and modernize it and I'll take an Otis Redding sample and modernize it. Texturally what Margiela was to fashion is really similar was to what Dilla is to music."

He compared Dilla to Margiela.

"We were all designers in a way, so perhaps maybe I was like the Marc Jacobs of hip-Hop and he was more like the Margiela of hip-hop. Pete Rock was the Jean Paul Gaultier, and Q-Tip was the John Galliano."

Kanye went on to describe the midwest and being born in that culture.

"You're fighting for your economic equality with your talent," he said. "That's all you got. That pressure bust pipes, something great. A rose was going grow out of that concrete and Dilla was definitely one of those roses."